Singapore is based on a fraud. It's state institutions are weak. It cannot last.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Anyone looking at Singapore island, a city state, with a population of just perhaps 2 million local citizens, with another 3 million recently arrived foreigners, in a space which is just 26 miles across and 16 miles at the vertical, with the lowest population fertility rate in the world, and the highest brain drain to the West, with majority of native born citizens dying of old age, where daily the local born citizens are declining in numbers, could right fully ask whether such a country can ever manage to survive into the future, let alone tomorrow.

These facts alone would entitle anyone with any brain in his head to conclude that it simply has no chance whatsoever. And no one would be right to question it.

Remember, at the rate the local population of this tiny island is declining, if there was 3 million local born yesterday, there will be only 2.5 million this year and perhaps only 2 million year after that. The locals are simply disappearing and being replaced by Chinese national foreigners, Lee's preferred race.

If these facts alone should not alarm any investor in the island, any local Singaporean or anyone else with a stake in the island, the entire island itself is based on a fraud.

The Constitution requires the rule of law. But this is the last thing the courts protect. The average citizen in the island has no respect whatsoever in their courts. Judges have been historically required to double as ruling government politicians to abuse the law  to remove and destroy political opponents, the most famous among the long litany of resistence being the late JB Jeyaretnam and Chee Soon Juan. Rule of law as required in the Constitution does not exist and every citizen has no respect whatsoever in their judicial system.

The government itself is based on a fraud. The average person has lost all respect for their vital elements of the Constitution and their government. It has lost it's legitimacy and it's moral authority. The Constitutional requirement of free speech expression and assembly and the freedom of the press are denied. Any one of theses actions guaranteed under the Constitution would attract immediate arrest and imprisonment. In fact the Constitution is a myth. It does not exist. The government simply does what they want.

Just as in Stalinist Russia, the island's state controlled press churns out good news non-stop 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The people don't believe a word it says and just as it was in the Soviet Union, the papers go on publishing while the people simply ignore it. To call them newspapers is a fraud and the people know it.

And then you have the Internet which did not exist 10 years ago. Now people are not as deceived as they were before and their state controlled press loses credibility even further. Government makes whatever claims they want this week and the next week it is forgotten.

The state elections held every 5 years are a fraud. Any real opposition candidate is either removed from running or he himself recuses himself for fear of government reprisals, while the government candidate simply glides effortlessly into Parliament guaranteed with success.

Otherwise the government promotes an opposition party called the Workers Party to win seats while secretly, they work for the interest of the Lee's ruing party the PAP. As a result a vote for the PAP or for the Workers Party are both in fact for the government. No other political party is allowed to win any seats. The whole exercise is simply a fraud and the people know it.

Lee Kuan Yew claims to be 90 years old but really no one knows his real age, some putting it as much as 95. He has had strokes and is literally bed ridden and does not have long to live. To ensure his grip on power and that of his family, being the only real politician the island has ever known since 1959, like Fidel Castro of Cuba, he made sure that no one else will be allowed to develop real ground support.

In fact Singapore has no leaders to speak of, except Lee Kuan Yew. No one was allowed to be a leader because under Singapore law, no one is allowed to make a public speech, no one is allowed to form associations without government permission, no one is allowed to print and distribute anything, and no one was allowed to be given any publicity in the state controlled press and lastly but equally important, anyone who attempted to become a leader was sued for defamation, jailed and bankrupted.

If Singapore has no real leaders, who are these government politician who routinely pontificate to the Singaporean population in the state controlled press? They are scholar turned ministers. They are students who were given scholarships because of their loyalty to Lee and the ruling party and because they did well in school. After they have graduated, they are fielded in elections which they invariably win and thereafter are licensed to make speeches which are publicized daily in the state controlled press. They are Lee Kuan Yew's leaders and the people are supposed to obey them.

In reality today, no Singaporeans really respects any of these instant scholar turned leaders who appear to prop up from nowhere. They simply ignore what they have said either by themselves or because the government asked them to. As a result the electoral system is considered a complete farce.

Today Singapore island is run like the private company of the Lee family. Just as you would do in a company, the CEO would appoint capable mangers to run it, as in Singapore, Lee chooses capable men and women and make them ministers. Unlike a country, the people have no say in who is selected to govern. This whole system created by Lee to ensure that he remains in control is a fraud pretending to be a country, when in fact it a company. Singaporeans are fully aware of it and have lost all respect for the electoral system.

Today there is this great divide between the people of Singapore and the government. Not a single ordinary citizen has any respect for their government, which remains in control through force and punishment. Fear of punishment and dire consequences maintain a calm over the people of Singapore. Question is can it last?

I think if Singapore, a place of no more than perhaps 2.5 million local citizens and another 3.5 million foreigners stays intact, it is only because of Lee Kuan Yew. He may be out of the limelight but he is nevertheless the supreme leader of Singapore. If he dies, being 90 now, his son, who was made Prime Minister by him cannot expect to continue in control as the people simply do not respect him.

If he is not the one who else? Unfortunately there is simply no one. Every one of these sycophants who earn millions as Ministers are simply there and making these speeches because Lee Kuan Yew lets them. If they have power, it derives from Lee's presence vicariously. When Lee's senior is gone, they won't have any on their own, since they are not anyone's leaders anyway.

What happens next? Some other bunch of political opportunists who think they are better than anyone else tries to lead but since they have not done and accomplished anything, it would be hard for them to remain. Then what? Further instability?

The moment this sort of instability rears it's head in an island with no more than 2 million Singaporeans and five million foreigners, the first thing that is going to happen is the foreigners leaving. Second the money leaving. Third, even more Singaporeans leaving. At this point, if there is any government remaining, their only hope to control would be through massive use of force and repressive policing. Opponents would be rounded up for punishment and even more fear will blanket the island, resulting in an even greater brain drain and the tiny population shrinking even further into oblivion. As for the foreigners who are given citizenship en masse to make up the numbers, they would have been the first to leave.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident